Hurricane Matthew Closes WDW - Reopens Saturday, October 8th

[wilkeliza]

I thought the pic from the Poly said to stay in your room from nine till further notice?

Room is probably easier to post on a sign and will keep most people there. The real goal is to keep you in a confined building.

 

[HopperFan]

This is likely because of the curfew that all of Orange County/Orlando is under from 10pm tonight until 7am Saturday

Nothing to do with curfew, it is always their procedure during a bad storm. They don't want folks wandering the property, possibly getting injured from falling trees or branches. They are not planning to keep anything open for you to visit so no reason to be outside. For guests safety and their liability.

Curfew is new, probably because Orlando never been hit like this. There will be emergency vehicles rolling, maybe power lines down, flooding and a big reason is sadly during storms looting occurs. The only way to protect the innocent and shut down the guilty is a curfew. With everything closed no reason to be out there, so be where you need to be by curfew deadline.

 

[poohbear8]

FP for the boxes at all star sports...SAME thing I thought when I saw the lines tonight.

I have nothing to add, except a huge THANK YOU to the person who stated Disney was showing movies on channel 31!!! It would have been nice if sports had told us that.

 

[gja360]

Nothing to do with curfew, it is always their procedure during a bad storm. They don't want folks wandering the property, possibly getting injured from falling trees or branches. They are not planning to keep anything open for you to visit so no reason to be outside. For guests safety and their liability.

Curfew is new, probably because Orlando never been hit like this. There will be emergency vehicles rolling, maybe power lines down, flooding and a big reason is sadly during storms looting occurs. The only way to protect the innocent and shut down the guilty is a curfew. With everything closed no reason to be out there, so be where you need to be by curfew deadline.

Exactly what I was thinking, Disney wants you inside to protect you. The curfew like you said is for making sure First responders can do their job and emergency crews can do what they need to without worrying about the public being out in this. And unfortunately like you said looting does take place so the curfew should help with that as well

 

[S. C.]

Checking in from South Florida. We live in Boca Raton, which is between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. We are all boarded up and waiting for Matthew. No work today and tomorrow.

Stay safe my friend. (HUG)

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Universal waited very long to make the call as well. These two companies are some of the largest theme park companies in the world and aren't going to make a call like that too early. If they make that call too early then the storm might not even come close. Universal wasn't cancelling anything until their announcement today. Disney at least cancelled the Halloween party to start. It's not like closing the parks is something that happens often. The last time they closed the parks was over 10 years ago and many of the executives in the position to make the call weren't there then.

Making the call was perhaps the wrong phrase to use. There were people at Disney who knew what was going to happen, but they chose not to inform guests and CMs until the very last minute, allowing confusing and conflicting information to churn in the rumor mill over a very stressful and dangerous event. Out of all the theme parks in the area, Disney was the last to officially make an announcement of closure. Disney should have been a role model in this situation. Instead they came off as trying to squeeze out every last cent possible before the hurricane would force them to close, because damn it hurricanes just can't happen at the happiest place on earth.

 

[robfamily]

We are at All Star Sports right now. This thread has been so helpful. I have mixed feelings about how Disney has handled this hurricane.
The good:
Free arcade games all night tonight.
Character and cm dance party in lobby
Food court was well stocked despite the mad food rush
Flashlights placed in all rooms
The bad:
Communication
Price gouging on box lunches
Food court wait times tonight
Had to wait hours and beg to get our free dining extended for our extra days needed due to cancelled flight. I really didn't think this would be a problem. I spent 4 hours tonight getting this worked out.

 

[gja360]

We are at All Star Sports right now. This thread has been so helpful. I have mixed feelings about how Disney has handled this hurricane.
The good:
Free arcade games all night tonight.
Character and cm dance party in lobby
Food court was well stocked despite the mad food rush
Flashlights placed in all rooms
The bad:
Communication
Price gouging on box lunches
Food court wait times tonight
Had to wait hours and beg to get our free dining extended for our extra days needed due to cancelled flight. I really didn't think this would be a problem. I spent 4 hours tonight getting this worked out.

Stay safe tonight!

 

[Irish_Mike]

Here's a couple pictures out of the Contemporary earlier tonight. From the Alumni group on Facebook

 

[rteetz]

We are at All Star Sports right now. This thread has been so helpful. I have mixed feelings about how Disney has handled this hurricane.
The good:
Free arcade games all night tonight.
Character and cm dance party in lobby
Food court was well stocked despite the mad food rush
Flashlights placed in all rooms
The bad:
Communication
Price gouging on box lunches
Food court wait times tonight
Had to wait hours and beg to get our free dining extended for our extra days needed due to cancelled flight. I really didn't think this would be a problem. I spent 4 hours tonight getting this worked out.

The only one I think Disney couldn't have done much about is food court wait times. With everyone at the resorts at the same time you're going to have a long wait there just isn't much you can do about that. These food courts weren't built to hold everyone in the resort at the same time.

 

[rteetz]

Here's a couple pictures out of the Contemporary earlier tonight. From the Alumni group on Facebook

Now this is Disney doing good.

 

[HopperFan]

Okay, admit I'm tired ... between the usual day with the background of Weather Channel and keeping up with what is happening ... to distract me from worrying ..... and no sleeping well ............. I'll end this night with two things that made me laugh and then I'm going to try to sleep. Tomorrow going to be a long day of me glued to my beach town .........

Just saw this and I just cracked up laughing. We've all been there but somehow I just thought, how is this fun?


Los Angeles Times ‏@latimes 339 seconds ago
Hurricane Matthew bears down on Florida: -2 million urged to flee homes -60,000 homes and businesses without power http://lat.ms/2dPeWBK

THEN I saw this and for a split second, I actually thought, wait they put a boat in the Contemporary.
Clearly time to sleep.



TravelPulse ‏@TravelPulse 18 minutes ago
.@RoyalCaribbean prepares its latest newbuilds. #cruiseline #CruiseNews #RoyalCaribbean http://ow.ly/q2iv304V9P8

 

[Accident]

The storm is wobbling as some stations are calling it but right now doing it to the east instead of shuffling to the west which is really changing when and how bad it's going to be around the disney area. they also warn it could change it mind and just head more west so it's still a good amount of time before it's pass enough for that to not be a problem.

So it seems the heavier winds in the 90-120mph range (sustained winds) will start about 6amish and last until about 9amish. it's about 35mph winds right now at least where I am (just south of property, about 3-4 miles to hollywood studio as the crow flys but never measured it). They are calling the drop back to 55mph as the strong winds being over. 55 is higher than emergency response crews will operate in to put in perspective. Nothing really reporting how far south these winds are before we're back in the safe to be out range.

This of course just me flipping channels and listening to radio so take anything with a grain of salt and watch the reports yourself for more info.

 

[mjallemand]

Now this is Disney doing good.

It's a nice gesture but it's a bit of a bummer for folks in resorts that aren't connected to main areas. They're stuck in their rooms for the next 18 to 24 hours.

 

[mousefan73]

Here's a couple pictures out of the Contemporary earlier tonight. From the Alumni group on Facebook

Jeez. So to get character interaction like that book the CR in Fall and hope for a hurricane. Being sarcastic. Nice of Disney to do that.

 

[mousefan73]

Okay, admit I'm tired ... between the usual day with the background of Weather Channel and keeping up with what is happening ... to distract me from worrying ..... and no sleeping well ............. I'll end this night with two things that made me laugh and then I'm going to try to sleep. Tomorrow going to be a long day of me glued to my beach town .........

Just saw this and I just cracked up laughing. We've all been there but somehow I just thought, how is this fun?


Los Angeles Times ‏@latimes 339 seconds ago
Hurricane Matthew bears down on Florida: -2 million urged to flee homes -60,000 homes and businesses without power http://lat.ms/2dPeWBK

THEN I saw this and for a split second, I actually thought, wait they put a boat in the Contemporary.
Clearly time to sleep.



TravelPulse ‏@TravelPulse 18 minutes ago
.@RoyalCaribbean prepares its latest newbuilds. #cruiseline #CruiseNews #RoyalCaribbean http://ow.ly/q2iv304V9P8

Lol. That was my thought about the boat!

 

[PuppyJonathan]

Here's a couple pictures out of the Contemporary earlier tonight. From the Alumni group on Facebook

This is the Disney I know. seeing these pictures make my heart melt inside with joy

 

[PuppyJonathan]

It's a nice gesture but it's a bit of a bummer for folks in resorts that aren't connected to main areas. They're stuck in their rooms for the next 18 to 24 hours.

Sorry to double post but I think they're prepared for something like this, it's just the characters they have might not be the popular ones. I know for sure art of animation has some of the costumes as they've occasionally "visited" the resort. There's also a video on YouTube of Charley and shows the country bears in All Star Sports, which is probably the most remote out of any of the resorts!

 

[goopysolelady]

Just read on Facebook the guests at the Wilderness Lodge are having a fabulous time. Over the last couple of days one thing is now clear to me...if I'm booking future trips during hurricane season I'll delay it as long as necessary to save enough money to stay at one of the "self-contained" resorts, like the WL or CR. Plenty of room in those lobby's to "roam"...I'd go "mad" being confined to a room elsewhere. Our thoughts and prayers are being sent to all effected by this hurricane.

 

[yulilin3]

Here's a couple pictures out of the Contemporary earlier tonight. From the Alumni group on Facebook

@hiroMYhero a familiar face?